Show Me Love
by Butterfly Needle
Summary: Shaken by their encounter with Seimei, the Zero boys struggle to return to familiar ground.


**Disclaimer:** Not mine, never mine.

**Show Me Love  
**

Natsuo knows what pain is now.

It's the words of a Sacrifice that casts spells like the strongest Fighter. It's that horrible pressure in his chest, like a giant hand crushing his heart, his lungs, his entire being. It's the look on Ritsuka's face when he realizes just what his beloved brother has done.

It's the terror of standing before someone who could take Youji away from him forever.

Things move quickly, too quickly, once Seimei gets involved, and he and Youji get pulled along for the ride. More fighting, more pain - the kind he feels in his heart, not in his body. (They're not weak. They're not _failures_ like those old ladies.) Caught up in the chaos, he tumbles, and refuses to let go of Youji's hand.

But it's not enough.

No matter how hard Youji squeezes back, it's not enough just to hold hands. It's barely more than holding air. Now more than ever he needs to really feel Youji, prove to himself that he's still real, that his heart's still beating and that no one will ever separate them.

The moment they finally have a little time to themselves, he shoves Youji to the floor and climbs on top of him, straddling his hips.

Usually Youji would laugh, trying to be tough for his Fighter by pretending that he doesn't need the contact just as much. But they've been through too much to joke about that anymore. Youji isn't laughing when he grabs a handful of Natsuo's hair and yanks him down until they're face to face. "Natsuo…" He holds on to Natsuo's hip with his free hand, like he's afraid Natsuo might drift away if he doesn't. "My Natsuo. My Fighter."

"Yours," Natsuo agrees.

He jerks his head away, hard enough that he leaves some of his hair still tangled in Youji's fingers, and tugs at the bottom of Youji's shirt. Clothes are just in the way right now. Youji is quick to help, and they're both soon rid of their shirts, able to lie skin against skin from the waist up.

It's still not enough. Seimei's voice nags at the corners of his mind and he rests his forehead against Youji's chest, overwhelmed with exhaustion and hatred for Beloved. Even Soubi. _Especially_ Soubi.

"We can't trust him anymore, you know." This must be what people mean when they say the truth hurts. This truth wraps around his stomach like Seimei's wordspell, just as tight and almost as unbearable. "He's Seimei's now. He always was Seimei's."

"Yeah." Youji's nails dig into his back and drag down, and when they break through the skin Natsuo _shudders_; skin is just in the way, too. His hands settle near the small of Natsuo's back, nails eight little points of pressure near his spine.

In return, Natsuo kisses Youji's nose, his forehead, the mole by his eye - "I guess it's true," he murmurs against Youji's skin, remembering something Nana told them once.

"'If you have a mole where your tears fall, your life will be full of sorrow.'" Youji knows exactly what he means, of course. He pulls one hand away to tug on Natsuo's eyepatch, the elastic snapping against his cheek before slipping free of his ear. "I guess so."

Natsuo doesn't have anything to say to that. He watches the blur of Youji's fingers as they map out the place his right eye once was - fingers that become blurrier as tears of his own start trickling out of his left.

"Hey. Natsuo." Youji leans up to lick the tears away, but more fall to take their place. "Natsuo, don't cry," he begs, voice shrill, and hearing him begin to panic only makes Natsuo cry harder. One confrontation, not even a battle, and he's already falling to pieces. Maybe if he weren't so weak he would have been able to stop Seimei. Then they could go to school like Sensei wanted, and still be useful for her -

He's snapped out of his thoughts by Youji shoving him backwards, so hard that there's a loud _crack_ when his head connects with the floor. "I said _stop it_," Youji tells him, punctuating his words by pounding his fists down on Natsuo's chest. "I'm ordering you. As your Sacrifice, I'm ordering you not to cry!"

Now Natsuo is the one pulling Youji down on top of him, desperate to comfort him even though he's given an order that he can't obey. It's not that easy to just stop crying, but he kisses Youji's forehead again through his tears and takes Youji's hands, smeared with his blood, into his own. "You're crying too. Hypocrite."

The insult makes Youji laugh a little, even as he pulls one hand free to punch Natsuo again. Natsuo bites him on the shoulder in retaliation, and to make things fair; now they're both bleeding. "I never said_ I_ couldn't cry."

"Well, I'm saying you can't."

They're both laughing now, which was really the point of the bickering, and things don't feel quite so grim. If they can face the most powerful Sacrifice to ever exist and live to laugh about it afterwards, they can't be that weak, right? And they still have each other, just like they always have and always will.

"We'll be okay," Natsuo says.

"Yeah."

"Maybe we should go back to Soubi. Just to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"Better than sticking around to watch Sensei fawn over Ritsu."

They're not crying anymore, and having a goal in mind, even a small one, makes Natsuo feel less hopeless. Being near Ritsuka again will be fun, as long as Soubi doesn't do anything too stupid.

But that can wait until tomorrow. For now, they have each other.


End file.
